How many of you guys actually like mathematics?

How many Physicists here like the mathematics that's behind the physics? Or, do you just tolerate the math, seeing it as a sort of a tool?
Please don't answer unless you're at differential equations and beyond.

I like it. I just finished a book about fiber bundles not because I have to, but because I want to understand gauge theories better. I still don't get it, so I'm going to study some more differential geometry, in particular stuff about differential forms and integration on manifolds, and then I'll take another shot at understanding Yang-Mills theory. Then I intend to study functional analysis, so that I can finally learn the mathematics of quantum mechanics. I'm definitely choosing the math topics I need to understand the physics I'm interested in, and it can sometimes be a pain, but most of the time I think it's at least kind of fun.

I love the math. In fact, the primary reason I pursue the research I am now is BECAUSE of the math used in it (topology, category theory, algebra, and functional analysis mostly). The only reason I'm not a math major is because I find more joy in applying math to physical situations than proving things.

Nearly every physicist went through a period where they almost became mathematicians.

The problem (for most of us) is you hit a level of mathematics that ceases to be fun (eg some point around the time you hit the Bourbaki school and material), and you kind of have to master that before the mathematics gets fun again.

I love using math to solve physics and engineering problems, but am not into proving theorems. I was an undergrad math major briefly, but was turned off by some junior-level math courses that were "all proofs, all the time" and switched to physics at that point. As haelfix said, I hit a level where it ceased to be fun.

I like mathematics too, but my imagination and intuition has always been closer to natural sciences than to PURE math. (I never really understood the hardcore math geeks, that knows very little about physics or biology and yet litteraly drool over stuff like knot theory ;) So also beeing philosophically inclined I tend to always get a vision of what a certain mathematical problem or logic, could mean in terms of nature, and that to me nature and mathematics are really going hand in hand. Physics without math would be unthinkable, but I also think mathematics would not have been developed if it wasn't for our quest to understand nature.

I like math, and I'm pretty good at it. If my childhood were to work out slightly differently, I could've become a professor of mathematics by now. My biggest problem with math is that I don't particularly like working on abstract stuff with no real-world applications. Which is nearly all modern mathematics (in fact, much of what physicists nowadays consider "cutting-edge math" really dates back to 1940's or further).

Physics is basically maths only. You can write down a book full with words about popular science and in the end you still can't do anything apart from quoting other people. But you could understand just one equation and thenceforth understand all the results the (popular science) book failed to explain.

I like the maths that is directly useful for physics. However, there are many very abstract math topics that cannot be used for relevant physical results.

Nearly every physicist went through a period where they almost became mathematicians.

Feynman started university as a math major. He asked the head of math "What is the use of higher mathematics besides besides teaching more mathematics?", the head of math replied "If you have to ask that, then you don't belong in mathematics.", so Feynman changed his major to engineering. Feynman soon realized that he had overreacted and settled on physics.

Feynman also won the Putnam by a wide margin the year that he wrote it.

I always thought I liked math, but then I took Real Analysis, the only course I ever dropped. I dropped it because I was frustrated by having to labor over proofs of math I already knew (I'd already taken three semesters of calc, linear alg and boundary value problems at that point). That's when I realized I was not interested in math, but only APPLIED math

I study both physics and mathematics because I like both :)
Lately my interests have shifted more towards mathematics, but that might change back. At the moment I am following courses on Functional Analysis, Ditribution Theory, and Differential Geometry, and I can't wait to apply it by studying QM and GR in a proper way.